SOUTHBOUND AGAIN

After exactly 3 weeks to the day in the Singlar boat yard we are finally ready to go back in the water. We should be back in the water by 10:00 Wednesday morning and heading south once again. I think everyone is more excited to be back in the water after our long stay at the boat yard than we were when we left San Diego heading to Cabo.

The boat looks great and although it was a fairly large expense we hope not to have to haul out again for another 3 or 4 years. I have to say that I may actually miss the orange boot stripe but new blue looks great and more importantly the boot stripe should be out of the water now (at least until we find more stuff to put on board).

Bob Buchanan and all the crew at Total Yacht Works did a outstanding job. I have to say that we really appreciated that there were no surprises and we were kept informed when anything extra did come up. They are a top notch boat yard and I would suggest anyone coming to the Mazatlan are and in need of a haul out to check them out.

CARNAVAL MAZATLAN 2010

Carnaval 2010 in Mazatlan was really something to experience. I can't imagine that there are any people that know how to party as well as the Mexicans here in Mazatlan. Saturday night we headed downtown to enjoy the dance and burning of bad humor and what a celebration! On Sunday we attended the main parade which is the highlight of Carnaval and as hard as it is to believe I think there were more people than the night before.

We are still in the boat yard with the promise of being back in the water Wednesday morning. If all goes well we will be heading south on Wednesday with our sites on some quite anchorages where we can unwind after all of the festivities of Carnaval.

will it ever end?!?!

We are now on week two of our haul out/bottom job. The boat is finally almost ready for the first of two coats of barrier coat. We have had 3 people working on the boat non-stop sanding, stripping and filling the thousands of little pin holes in the hull in order to prep the hull for its new bottom paint. As you can see from the photos below they have marked off the new boot stripe with blue tape. We will be raising the boot stripe approximately 4 inches (a common thing to do once you start cruising full time).

Living life in the boatyard continues to be challenging but we are getting use to going up and down the ladder several million times a day. The boat is constantly dirty and dusty and the sanding that goes on basically all day can get on your nerves but it is nice having electric whenever we want without turning on the generator and the showers really are nice as well.

The start of carnival is coming up in just a few days so the town is really starting to bust at the seams. Mazatlan has the second largest carnival in the world (actually larger than New Orleans) so it should be quite the party. We are not sure if we will be back in the water by the start of carnival but either way we will be here for the festivities.